78. DAY 8 EXPEDITION

As our bus parked at the Discovery Science Center, kids were the first ones lined up to hop off it. We quickly paired up the kids as usual and Jiyeon and Hyukkie were put in charge of all them. Ji grinned and held hands with Duckie and Byong. The Fearsome Four gathered around Hyukkie. Imo, umma, Krystal and Nicole got busy taking their photographs in front of the Discovery Cube. Jessica wouldn’t leave DongHae’s side.

Our group trooped into the Cube eager to begin the new adventure. Kids wanted to go into the giant two-storey tall Argentinosaurus and learn about it. We headed inside and thanks to our specially booked packages, our group had one assistant allotted to us. We loved learning about dinosaurs through an electronic interactive quest. We were made research assistants and had to complete different missions. Through these missions we learnt how the internal organs of the body work.

We were happy because the kids had to learn body systems in school anyway. And hands on experience was the best way to learn it. Duckie and Byong kept asking me questions, comparing the body organs to their own body.

We saw an exact replica of T-Rex fossil. Children loved using the infra-red transmitters to communicate with the Research HQ as part of their mission. We took our time to explore and find solutions and yes, we did complete the mission. We adults were as excited as the children through the entire adventure.

It was lunch time by the time we completed the Dino Quest. We decided to have lunch before moving on. A well-fed brain learned better was my belief. We had Tex-Mex food at Taco Bell. For a change everyone enjoyed the variety of meals we ordered.

Hyukkie sat with the kids and Ji. Heechul and I had told him to ignore DongHae for a day. He had difficulty initially but became used to it by lunch time, though he was not happy about the separation. We noticed DongHae glancing at Hyukkie through the lunch. He had tried to sit near Hyukkie but Amber refused to give up her seat to her father.

DongHae and Jessica sat with us and the four of us got to observe his covert glances at Hyukkie. He asked if we knew the reason for Amber’s behavior and I informed him about my talk with her in the morning. What I did not tell him was TaeKey’s role in it as I did not want them killed during lunch.

“Thanks Jinki for having this difficult but important talk with her. I was dreading such questions. I don’t even want to think of her having a life before marriage. Hopefully she will be careful and will enter into meaningful relationships only.” DongHae smiled at me.

“What is wrong with pre-marital ? And why should love be a necessary part of relationship. If you like someone and want someone why not enjoy a purely physical relationship with them?” Jessica couldn’t understand our emphasis on love.

“That’s not what I want my daughter to do. Jump into physical relationships.” DongHae clarified.

“She is thirteen. In my country, many girls lose their ity around this age. is legally permissible at the age of 14 in Brazil. There is nothing wrong with having physical relationships and experiencing all that life has to offer. Why do you want to deny your daughter that pleasure?” Jessica reasoned.

DongHae looked at her in horror. She smiled nervously realizing her mistake and the quicksand she was treading on. He shifted his gaze to look wistfully at Hyukkie deep in conversation with Amber. We were sure he was remembering how delicately Hyukkie had handled this sensitive topic with Amber in the morning. He turned to me again.

“Jinki I can never thank you enough for today morning. It made my life difficult but her safety and happiness means much more to me.” DongHae softly declared.

I smiled in acknowledgement and squeezed Puppy’s thigh under the table. It was round 1 for Hyukkie. DongHae loved his daughter who preferred to spend her day with Hyukkie ignoring her father completely.

After lunch, kids wanted to be green superheroes and we went to learn how to save our eco-system. All of us took the Eco Challenge. We first learnt what things were eco-friendly and what weren’t and then went shopping for eco-friendly products. All of us passed it. In the next round we learnt waste management and were given scanners to identify household hazardous waste. On passing both challenges, we were handed our green superheroes badges which we all wore with great pride.

Imo began joking that on reaching home, this was one thing that would be adopted in all our households. Kibum, Heechul and I held a quick discussion on way to the next section. We decided to teach such simple environment-friendly sessions in our academies as well. We were all also in favor of getting body system models to make those classes more interactive and interesting for the students.

With our hagwons in mind, the three of us decided to stick together for the rest of the day. Kibum took his courage in hand and apologized to me, “We are so very sorry hyung for our mistake in the morning. We honestly thought the door was locked.”

I nodded, “Don’t repeat it Kibum. We have impressionable children with us of all ages and there is no way we want them to know physical aspects of relationship.”

“We’ll take extra care hyung. I’d asked Kai who’d entered our room and both of us are dreading DongHae hyung’s reaction.” Kibum continued miserably.

Heechul comforted him, “We have not told him about it and neither has Amber. But I will kill you with me bare hands if you are ever so careless again. Am I clear Key?”

“Yes hyung. I understand and will take care. But why is DongHae hyung not talking to our Hyukkie since breakfast? And what is that female doing hanging on to hyung all the time?”

Heechul answered for me, “DongHae has broken up with Hyukkie because Amber does not want them to have unless they love each other, like you and Taemin do.”

“What? Who told Amber that?” Kibum exclaimed loudly.

“Shush or do you want everyone to know. You can thank your Jinki hyung for giving Amber that bit of wisdom. Now she wants DongHae to respect Hyukkie and make an honest man out of him. That means, thanks to Jinx, DongHae cannot have with Hyukkie unless he says the “love” word to him. We are so proud of Jinx, our resident genius.” Heechul laughed. “You should have heard the lecture Amber gave to DongHae at breakfast time. Damn I should have recorded it.”

“We should make Jinki hyung take education classes in our hagwons. He is really good at giving advice.” Kibum suggested.

“Oh no. I will not give any such lessons. You people are enough. God only knows where you all were hiding when god handed out knowledge about it. Do you think I was born an expert on the topic?” I shook my head vehemently. What nonsense these two were talking.

“Maybe we should ask Jjong about your expertise.” Heechul grinned. “Hey Jjong we want to talk to you.” He called out to Puppy.

“Yes hyung?” Jjong slowed his speed to walk with us. He turned to Kibum, “Hyung if you want to go on anymore holidays with us, there better not be repeats of the morning incident. You and Tae hyung have to behave properly in front of kids.”

Kibum turned red and nodded.

“Jjong we want Jinx to take -ed classes for the hagwon students.” Heechul clarified.

Puppy looked at me and I shook my head. “Hmmm. Tokki is good at explaining such things to kids of all ages. He handles embarrassing questions really well. But, I don’t think parents will want their children to know stuff like this.”

“I think they will be thankful that someone else can tell them all the stuff they find difficult to talk about.” Heechul said. Kibum nodded in agreement and continued, “We can always put it to vote for the parents to decide and also the topics they want us to cover.”

“No, no. I am not taking such classes.” I was emphatic in my refusal.

“Hey you slackers, are you planning to keep talking or go to the next section?” Uncle called our attention.

“We will continue this discussion later.” Heechul and Kibum decided for us.

“One should never go on a holiday with one’s business partners. That’s my lesson for the day.” I wagged a finger at them.

We entered the Science on Sphere section. It was a huge six feet wide sphere hanging in air and rotating. We had selected some exhibits that we thought all of us would enjoy. As our first display started there was total concentration. We began by learning earth’s topography, then its oceans and atmosphere. The 3-D audio-visual display was a breathtaking start. We saw formation and devastation of typhoons, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes.

We saw simulation that took us through the world, the formation of polar ice caps and its impact on the earth. We saw earth illuminated by electric light at night before seeing sun, moon, stars and the planets. We saw another simulation that started with ice age and ended with glacier meltdown 8000 years in future. The final display was a fireworks show that left us gasping in audio-visual wonder.

My mind raced. I wanted it for our academies. I enquired from our center-appointed assistant and his answer left me feeling dejected. Upward of 150 million wons. We didn’t have that kind of money even if all our hagwons pooled in.  

Puppy wrapped his arm around my waist and whispered, “Yeobo I know you want it. Let me work out how to get these data sets on a computer. Maybe we can project it two dimensionally?”

I nodded eagerly. He went off to talk to our assistant about obtaining the datasets. I saw a big smile spread on his face. My puppy was a miracle worker.

“Yeobo, most datasets can be downloaded from the net. I will have them ready for use within a month. Now give me a smile.”

I grinned at him and whispered back, “You are really the best dragon in the world. Love you jagi.”

“And I love you too yeobo.” We walked to the Boeing Rocket Lab, our last section for the day.

Thought it was the first exhibit near the entrance of the Discovery Cube, we had saved it for the last on our way out. It was an awesome simulation showing us different parts of the space rocket. Again it was mission oriented. To get a launch simulation, we had to answer questions. We were successfull and our rocket blasted off, making everyone jump in excitement.

With the rocket launch our day came to an end. Kids started whining to see more. But we had to go back to our bus. Once there, we began taking out the sleeping bags and overnight travelling bags that we had stowed separately from our remaining luggage. We all had packed one set of night wear, towel, personal hygiene items and clothes for next day morning.

Puppy and Siwon announced to the kids that we were camping out in the Center. We had kept this piece of info as a surprise for them. Whoops and screams greeted the announcement.

We went back inside the cube and were offered refreshment before we began our first activity of rock wall climbing. Puppy, Siwon and DongHae made it a competition between themselves. Siwon was the fastest. Sehun and Kai competed against each other only to end with a tie.

Every one took a turn at it, except Kibum, umma and imo. Doc got even Soo to climb up with him. Tae challenged me and we were neck to neck to the top. Puppy yelled from the ground, “Tae hyung don’t challenge my old man again.”

Next we went to the Pin wall where we could make any shape we wanted in the wall. Byong and Duckie had the most fun making shapes of their faces and hands. Fearsome Four made impressions of their backs. Soo and Doc laced their hands and made impression of that. Tae made the impression of his . Puppy urged me to make one too just beside Tae’s. Everyone turned around and then voted mine better. Tae pouted and Puppy discreetly pinched the winning .

Since our group was the only one in the Center after closing time, we had no qualms in laughing loudly or screeching with joy as we went for our next activity. We learned cloud formation and made our own clouds.

Then we learned how to use a seismograph to measure the earthquake tremors. And got experience of an earthquake in what they called Shake Shack. Bummie screamed the loudest for his Tae hyung to save him. Kids doubled up in laughter.

Next disaster we experienced were hurricane winds in the simulation chamber. It was also the last of the interactive science demonstrations. Unless one called making ice cream a scientific experiment. We made ice cream for ourselves and ate it too after a dinner of pizzas.

There was an after-dinner movie presentation based on science and nature. By nine we were rolling out our sleeping bags under the stars. The arrangement kept tickling our funny bone.

Jessica wanted to lay out her sleeping bag next to DongHae, playing on his sympathies and cooking up fears. He sent her off to sleep with imo and uncle, citing his need to keep his daughter safe. Amber refused to talk to him and placed her sleeping bag next to Jiyeon and Minx. Ji refused to sleep with Soo who had placed hers besides Leeteuk and kept talking to him.

Sehun wanted to sleep next to Minx saying he had to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t need anything during sleep. Kai pointed out how she’d need anything if she was sleeping. Sehun refused to be budged from his position. He held Minx’s hand outside the sleeping bag. Kai lay his next to Sehun’s to keep an eye on the two. He called Hyukkie over and both began talking of dance movements.

DongHae tried to place his sleeping bag next to Hyukkie’s but Byong beat him to it. He wanted to sleep inside Hyukkie’s bag but we convinced him to use his own. Duckie couldn’t decide where to sleep. Imo called to her, and she went to sleep between her two grandmothers. Siwon called DongHae to sleep next to him.

When we finally had our sleeping bags arranged, the center assistant pointed out star constellations to us, then bid us good night. By that time the youngest two had fallen asleep. The rest of us decided to play passing the parcel. The punishment would be to dance, sing or tell a joke.

Music, melodies and laughter filled the area for a long time. Best part was when it was DongHae’s turn. He turned to look at Hyukkie and began singing Mirotic. Heechul put the song on his phone and Puppy, Siwon and Leeteuk got up and sang along with DongHae. Kibum pushed Tae to join as well. The five of them gave a wonderful performance of both singing and dancing. Hyukkie blushed throughout but Heechul and I shook our heads signaling him to stay put and ignore DongHae. Jiyeon teased Soo till Leeteuk returned to her side and silenced Ji with the promise of a special treat next day.

Seeing no response from Hyukkie, DongHae kneeled by his side and began singing another song holding out his hands to Hyukkie.

The loneliness of nights alone

The search for strength to carry on

My every hope has seemed to die

My eyes has no more tears to cry

Then like the sun shining up above

You surrounded me with your endless love

Coz all the things I couldn't see

Are now so clear to me

You are my everything

Nothing your love won’t bring

My life is yours alone

The only love I've ever known

Your spirit pulls me through

When nothing else will do

Every night I pray

On bended knees

That you will always

Be my everything

You're the breath of life in me

The only one that sets me free

And you have made my soul complete

For all time

For all time

You are my everything

Nothing your love won’t bring

My life is yours alone

The only love I've ever known

Your spirit pulls me through

When nothing else will do

Every night I pray

On bended knees

That you will always

Be my everything

Oh my everything.

By the time DongHae sang the last line, Hyukkie was holding his hands with tears in his eyes.

Amber ran to them and jumped on both, hugging them and screaming, “You are the best man in the world appa. I am so proud of you.”

Umma looked shocked but then shrugged, what was one more gay man in the family. The four of us were ginning widely like fools as if DongHae’s confession was our personal achievement. Puppy got up and brought sleeping Byong to lie near ne.

We all loudly congratulated the new couple. Jessica didn’t look too put out. Two days had passed and she knew her efforts were wasted on DongHae. Sehun looked at us and then at Minx, but we shook our heads. He sighed and accepted our decision. No more songs.

Uncle called our attention to time and we all heeded him. DongHae spread his sleeping bag next to Hyukkie and the loud conversations became whispers and slowly even they too died down.

Puppy and I didn’t talk, just kept waiting for all to fall asleep. Then puppy shifted his bag nearer to me and opened his arms. I put my head on his shoulder and my back to his chest. Wrapped in his arms, I finally fell asleep.